A Scoping Review of Vaping Among the Asian Adolescent Population

Abstract

Little is known about vaping and its associated factors among Asian adolescents worldwide. We did a scoping review of the international literature on vaping among Asian adolescents. The prevalence of Asian adolescent vaping varied by the country’s e-cigarette policies: the highest prevalence in Indonesia 32.2% (ever vapers) and 11.8% (current vapers) in 2019 and the lowest in Japan with 2.1% to 3.5% (ever vapers) and 0.7% to 1.0% (current vapers) in 2017. In New Zealand, a Western country with strong tobacco control but liberal policies on vaping, the prevalence of ever vaping was 20.4%, regular vaping 4.2%, and weekly vaping 2.8% in 2019. The most common reasons for vaping in both contexts were curiosity and peer influence. The internet as a popular source of information on vaping was identified mostly in Asian studies. In Asian contexts, the most common reasons for more frequent vaping were the desire to quit smoking and the ability to vape indoors, whereas in Western countries, the top three reasons were nicotine concentration, nicotine dependence, and more daily vaping sessions. Regular monitoring and more targeted research to understand adolescents’ vaping behaviors will need to be undertaken on this heterogeneous population to inform appropriate policies and regulations.